Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A typical image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, and a facsimile includes an operation unit that indicates operation states of the image forming apparatus and performs predetermined input operations. Some image forming apparatuses employ an in-barrel discharge type that includes an image reading unit on an upper side of an image forming unit, and an in-barrel discharge space between the image reading unit and the image forming unit. The in-barrel discharge type image forming apparatus includes a paper-sheet discharge tray arranged on a bottom surface portion of the in-barrel discharge space, and a paper sheet discharged onto the paper-sheet discharge tray after the termination of image formation is taken out from a front side of an image forming apparatus body.
In the in-barrel discharge type image forming apparatus, when the operation unit is installed so as to project from the image reading unit on the upper portion of the image forming apparatus to the front side of the image forming apparatus, the operation unit decreases a visibility of the paper sheet discharged into the in-barrel discharge space. Therefore, there has been proposed an image forming apparatus in which a part of the operation unit is depressed toward a rear side of the image reading unit to a position where a part of the paper sheet discharged onto the in-barrel discharge space can be seen from the front obliquely upward.
There has been proposed another image forming apparatus in which the operation unit is removably attachable to a front surface of the image reading unit located on an upper portion of the in-barrel discharge space and a front surface of the image forming unit located on a lower portion of the in-barrel discharge space.